D 16 
.9 

.US 

Copy 1 



HISTORY AS ETHICS 



OUTLINE OF LECTURE STUDIES ON 

THE ETHICAL INTERPRETATION 

OF HISTORY 



BY 



PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 

SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 
AUTHOR OF "A GENERAL HISTORY," ETC. 



HISTORY AS ETHICS 



OUTLINE OF LECTURE STUDIES ON 

THE ETHICAL INTERPRETATION 

OF HISTORY 



BY 



PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 

SOMETIME PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 
AUTHOR OF "A GENERAL HISTORY," ETC. 



-p^ 






COPYRIGHT, I9IO, BY 
PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
^10.7 



GINN AND COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



(gCLA268823 



Ethics gives to history its rational goal ; and all morality has the perfect 
shaping of universal history as its ultimate end. A real understanding of 
history is not possible without ethics. — Wuttke. 

Ethics, if it is to become truly a science, must shun the path of speculation 
and follow closely the historical method. . . . The great desideratum, the sole 
condition of ethical progress, is the suspension of all philosophizing until an 
ethical science has been constructed through a comprehensive study of the 
phenomena of universal morality. — Schurman. 

The real advance made by Thucydides consists, perhaps, in this, that he per- 
ceived the motive forces of human history to lie in the moral constitution of 
human nature. — Ranke. 

Der Weg, den sie weitergehen konnte, wird sich niemand offenbaren, der 
nicht die Wege kennte, die sie gegangen ist. — Lippert. 



iii 



HISTORY AS ETHICS 

OUTLINE OF LECTURE STUDIES 

ON 

THE ETHICAL INTERPRETATION OF HISTORY 

BY 

PHILIP VAN NESS MYERS 



INTRODUCTION 

1. Man's ideas and feelings of duty as a subject of historical 
study. The present an account of the common conscience of dif- 
ferent races and times, and not an account of the ethical systems 
or theories of philosophers. 

2. The moral as the ultimate goal in history. '* Universal his- 
tory is the realization of the moral" {Wttttke). ''The creation of 
a moral order on an ever-growing scale is the great historical task 
of mankind " {Coo ley). 

3. The ethical interpretation of history. The essence of the 
historical evolution consists in moral progress. The political, in- 
tellectual, economic, and religious developments subsidiary to the 
moral evolution. The ethical motive the constant and growing 
factor in human progress. ''There is no human function so con- 
stant as the activities in accordance with virtue " {Aristotle). The 
most important fact of the cosmic evolution is that the ethical 
impulses have from the beginning been gradually becoming more 
and more dominant in the evolutionary process. 



2 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

4. In what moral progress consists: (i) in "the increasing 
clearness, fullness, and fineness of the moral perceptions ; " and 
(2) in a gradual extension of the range of persons embraced by 
the moral feelings. " It is not the sense of dut)^ to a neighbor, but 
the practical answer to the question, Who is my neighbor ? that has 
varied" {T. H. Green). 

5. Sources of the histor}^ of morals. The facts making up the 
moral histor)' of mankind must be sought in political, social, and 
economic histories, in the customs, mythologies, literatures, phi- 
losophies, institutions, law systems, and religions of different races 
and times. 

6. The moral ideal, t}'pe, or standard. ''The ideal may be ex- 
pressed in a code of commandments, in a series of injunctions, or 
in the form of a life which is set up as a model for our imitation " 
iyMackensie). 

7. Analog}^ between t}'pes of beaut)' and of goodness. " There 
are many distinct casts of goodness, as there are many distinct 
casts of beaut}^ " {Lecky). Composite moral t}'pes. 

8. Causes which create or modify the ideal : (i) stages of 
intellectual development ; (2) physical environment ; (3) social 
and political institutions ; (4) occupation ; and (5) speculative and 
religious ideas. 

9. In what virtue or moral goodness consists : '' The essential 
thing in this world is not to serve this ideal or that one, but with 
all one's soul to ser^^e the ideal which one has chosen " (Sabatier). 

10. The basis of historical ethical judgments. ''A man must 
learn a great deal to enable him to pass a correct judgment on 
another man's acts " {Marcus Attrelms). Peoples and times must 
be judged by their own moral standards. 



THE DAWN OF MORALITY 3 

II 

THE DAWN OF MORALITY: CONSCIENCE IN THE 
KINSHIP GROUP 

A. Conditions of Life and Thought determining the Rudimentary 
Character of the Code of Morals 

1. The kinship group (family, clan, tribe) with its feeling of 
corporate oneness. '' The tribal self." The two bonds uniting the 
members of the group, — the bond of blood and the bond of religion. 

2. The soul theory and conception of the life after death. The 
continuance theory {Tylor). 

3. Nonethical conceptions of the god-world. Primitive man 
makes the gods in his own image. 

4. The state of attack and defense in which life is passed, com- 
petition and struggle for life being between communities and not 
between individuals. 

B. Rules of Conduct 

5 . First, we should note that the life of primitive peoples is 
chiefly unmordl, the activities to secure food, shelter, and clothing 
arising from purely animal impulses, such as hunger, cold, etc. 
The gradual entrance into these activities of an ethical element 
is one of the most important facts of the moral evolution of man- 
kind (Wundt). Second, we should note that the morality of 
primitive races is chiefly '' negative morality." 

6. The true starting point of the historical ethical development 
is to be sought in the moral sentiments nourished in the atmos- 
phere of the kinship group. '' The spring of virtuous action is 
the social instinct, which is set to work by the practice of com- 
radeship " {Clifford). 

7. Custom as the maker of the rules of group morality. Morality 
consists in following custom. Conscience is tribal rather than 
individual. 



4 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

8. The principle of collective responsibility. The group and 
not the individual is the ethical unit. Survivals of this principle 
of communal responsibility^ in modern ethics. 

9. The duty of blood revenge. Ground of the sacredness of 
this obligation. 

10. The virtue of courage. Under this virtue is hidden the 
virtue of self-sacrifice or devotion to the common welfare. 

1 1 . The general nonethical character of early religion. 

12. The ethical element in ancestor worship. The importance 
of this cult in the moral as in the social and political evolution 
of mankind. What morality owes to the worship of the hearth- 
fire l^Bosanqtcet). 

1 3 . The beginnings of intertribal moralit}^ : 

a. The code regulating conduct within the kinship group is 
at first not applicable to strangers. '* Thou shalt not kill meant 
thou shalt not kill within the tribe" {Thomas), It is the same 
with stealing and lying. There arises thus a double standard of 
morality, one intratribal and another intertribal. This dualism 
runs through all moral history. In modem morality it finds ex- 
pression in the inconsistencies of the nations' ethics of peace and 
their ethics of war {Spencei). 

b. Hospitality or the guest right ; the first step beyond kinship 
or group morality {Lippert). 

c. The treaty right ; the second step beyond kinship or group 
morality {Lippert). 

d. Mitigations in primitive warfare effected, in part at least, by 
the growth of moral feeling : the discontinuance of man-hunting 
expeditions for securing food, of the practice of eating the bodies 
of enemies slain in battle, and of the use of poisoned arrows. The 
beginnings of the moralization of war. 

14. The reaction of intertribal morality upon intratribal morality, 
though at first promotive of the moral evolution, becomes later 
a drag on moral progress. 



THE MORAL LIFE OF ANCIENT EGYPT 5 

III 

THE MORAL LIFE OF ANCIENT EGYPT 

A. Conceptions of Man and the Universe which gave a Special 
Cast to Egyptian Morality 

1. The doctrine of religious dualism as embodied in the myth 
of Osiris and Set. At first simply a physical myth of the life- 
giving Nile and the barren desert, of light and darkness, it 
gradually acquired a moral content and meaning, and, as a repre- 
sentation of the eternal opposition between moral good and moral 
evil, became an educative force in the moral life of Egypt. Nature 
as a moral teacher. 

2. The doctrine of immortality and the nature and require- 
ments of the soul in the afterlife. 

3. The Osirian myth in its special development, which told 
of the .life of Osiris on earth, of his death and resurrection, and 
of his office as king and judge of the underworld. 

B. The Moral Standard 

4. Egyptian morality during the historic age a study in moral 
statics. The same immobility characterizes the moral phase of 
Egyptian civilization that marks all its other phases. The con- 
science with which Egyptian history closes essentially the same 
as that with which it opens. 

5. But the progressive refinement and clarification of the moral 
feelings in predynastic times is attested (i) by the moralization 
of the Osirian myth ; (2) by the abandonment of the practice of 
human sacrifices at the tomb, as shown by the substitution of the 
ka-image for human victims (Maspero and Wiedermann) ; and (3) by 
the transition from the continuance to the retribution theory (7)//<?r). 
In its changing arrangements and ethical classifications the world 
of souls is ever a register of the changing and . growing moral 



6 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

consciousness of mankind. '' The other world answers to this as 
the spectrum to the source of hght " {Peschel), 

6. The relation of the religion to the morality. The religious 
development ceased before the conceptions of the gods were in 
general moralized. The little educative value of the temple ritual. 

7. Influence of the Osirian cult upon the moral life. Osiris as 
the moral exemplar. 

8. The dowering of the dead as a pious duty. 

9. The Judgment of the Dead and the Negative Confession, — 
a remarkable creation of the moral consciousness of ancient Egypt. 
The stress is laid upon social rather than upon religious duties. 

10. The moral precepts of Ptahotep ; an ethical conception of 
riches and of public office. 

11. In common with the general conscience of antiquity the 
Egyptian conscience sanctioned slavery. 

12. The ethics of war ; the lagging of this part of the moral code. 

13. Influence of the moral ideal upon Egyptian life and history. 



IV 

THE MORALITY OF THE BABYLONIANS AND ASSYRIANS 

1 . The information which the cuneiform texts have yielded con- 
cerning the moral life of the Mesopotamian peoples, though scanty, 
is of the greatest value to the student of comparative morals, not 
only because it casts light upon a moral development in some im- 
portant respects like the moral evolution of the kindred Semitic 
People of Israel, but also because that later evolution was deeply 
influenced by it. " In the seventh century before Christ, if not 
earlier, the Babylonians and Assyrians possessed a system of mo- 
rality which in many respects resembled that of the descendants 
of Abraham" {King). 

2. On account of its general nonethical character the Babylonian 
religion — it was largely pure shamanism — reacted only feebly on 
the moral life. 



CHINESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF FILIAL PIETY 7 

3. However, there were ethical tendencies in the reHgion, as is 
evidenced by the so-called pentitential psalms and hymns, which 
are filled with genuine moral feeling and aspiration. 

4. The significance of the persistence, without serious protest 
{Maspero), of a nonethical conception of the life after death. 

5. The ethical spirit of the laws; the Code of Hammurabi. 
This compilation of laws is an embodiment of the social, indus- 
trial, and commercial morality of the times, — an advanced morality, 
yet one with serious limitations and defects. Punishment is often 
meted out in accordance with the primitive principles of the Lex 
talionis and collective responsibility. 

6. International moralit}^ : .the war ethics of the Assyrians. 



CHINESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF FILIAL PIETY 

A. Ideas, InstitiUions, and Ciracmstaiices of History that 
molded the Moral Ideal 

1 . Vagueness in the conception of the Supreme Being. 

2. The conception of human nature as good (cf. Christian 
belief in the ''fall of man"). 

3. Ancestor worship : the ethical value of this cult. 

4. Conception of the past as perfect. Import for ethics of the 
manner of conceiving this past. 

5. The teachings of great moralists: Confucius (b. 551 b.c.) 
and Mencius (b. about 370 b.c). The personal equation in the 
history of morals. 

6. Geographical and cultural isolation. 

B. The Moral Ideal 

7. It is noteworthy that the leaders and teachers of no people, 
save the prophets of Israel, have so insistently interpreted life and 
histor)' in terms of ethics as have the sages of China. 



8 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

8. The four cardinal virtues of the moral ideal : (i) filial obe- 
dience or piety ; (2) reverence towards superiors ; (3) a conforming 
to ancient custom ; (4) the maintenance of the just medium. ** To 
go beyond is as \\Tong as to fall short " {Analects). 

9. The dut}' of intellectual self -culture. The sages taught that 
learning and moral goodness run together. 

10. The duties of rulers. Never have the duties of rulers been 
more insistently inculcated than by the moral teachers of China. 

1 1 . Disesteem of the heroic or martial virtues. The emperor of 
China alone, among the great secular rulers of the world, never 
wears a sword {Okahird). 

12. Principles and inner disposition. 

13. Defects of the ideal; no duties to God, and the duties of 
parents to children neglected {Legge). 

C. Effects of the Moral Ideal upon C/imese Life 
and History 

14. Degree of conformity between the ideal and practice. Dif- 
ference between the moralit}^ of the official class and that of the 
common people. 

1 5 . The ideal has exalted the family life. 

16. It has lent stability to Chinese institutions. Chinese society 
the sole survivor from the ancient world of culture. 

17. It has fostered learning. 

18. It has, however, created undue reverence for the past and 
thus checked progress. The Chinese disapproval of innovation in 
any and every domain of life like our reprobation of innovations 
in the domain of religion. 

19. It has contributed, through the exaggerated stress laid upon 
the principle of the just medium, to produce a dull uniformity of 
life. Chinese life " the prose of existence." 

20. Through the multiplicity of minute rules of conduct it has 
fostered formalism, ceremonialism. There is lack of the inner 
spirit and of depth and earnestness in the moral life. 



JAPANESE MORALS : AN IDEAL OF LOYALTY 9 

21. It has checked the growth of feehngs of parental respon- 
sibiUty ; infanticide. 

22. Impending changes in the ideal. 



VI 

JAPANESE MORALS: AN IDEAL OF LOYALTY 
A. Formative and Modifying Influences 

1 . Introductory : a practically independent evolution in morals. 

2. The soHdarity of the family. 

3. Shinto, or ancestor worship. 

4. The monarchy of divine origin. 

5. Feudalism — fostered martial and chivalric virtues. 

6. Confucianism — brought in elements of the Chinese ethical 
system. 

7. Buddhism — inculcated gentleness and courtesy. 

8. Western civilization ; contact with the life and thought of 
the West is effecting profound modifications in the ethical type. 

B. The Code of Morals 

9. Bushido, as the ideal of chivalry, forms the heart and core 
of Japanese morality. 

10. Unquestioning obedience and absolute loyalty to the em- 
peror, cardinal duties. " To fear the emperor and to keep his 
commandments is the full duty of man " {Scherer). 

1 1 . Filial piety ; duty to one's parents second only to duty 
to the emperor. 

12. Suicide regarded as a noble and virtuous act. 

1 3 . Family ethics ; woman as wife and mother. Difference 
between the family ethics of the East and the family ethics of 
the West. ''In the East woman has always been worshiped as 
the mother" {Kaknro). 



lO HISTORY AS ETHICS 

C. Some Significant Facts in the Moral History of Japan 

14. Influence of the moral ideal of Bushido ; it has left a 
permanent impress upon the moral consciousness of the nation, 
and has been a chief force in the creation of the new Japan. 
The hara-kiri of feudalism and the imperial restoration ; a re- 
markable passage in the moral history of Japan. 

15. How the Japanese virtue of self-devotion (''the spirit of 
not living unto one's self "), exalted to a degree the world has 
never seen surpassed, gave Japan the victory in her struggle with 
Russia for national existence. 

16. The faulty morality of the trader. ''The obloquy attached 
to the calling [a social stigma attached here to shopkeeping as 
in ancient Greece] brought within the pale such as cared little 
for social repute " {Nitobe). The moral standard of the samurai 
in competition with that of the plebeian trader. 

17. Disregard of truthfulness a serious defect in Japanese 
morality. " Liar " not a term of reproach. 

18. Near-at-hand and significant changes in the Japanese ideal 
of character through the absorption of the science and culture of 
the Occident. 



VII 

THE ETHICAL IDEALS OF INDIA 
A. The Ethics of Brahmanism ; an Ideal of Asceticism 
I. Historical a^id Speculative Basis of the System, 

1 . The conception of Brahma — an impersonal first cause. 

2. The system of castes. 

3. The character given woman in the sacred books. 

4. The doctrine of transmigration. 

5. Indian pessimism. 



THE ETHICAL IDEALS OF INDIA ii 

6. The all-important place given by the Brahmans to sacrifice. 
'' They [the gods] live by sacrifice ; the sun would not rise if the 
priests did not make sacrifice." 

II. T/ie Moral System . 

7. A class morality ; different ideals or codes of conduct for 
the different castes. 

8. The highest ideal of excellence. The realization of this ideal 
opens the way of escape from the wearisome cycle of existence ; 
but the ideal is attainable only by Brahmans. 

9. The codes of conduct for the inferior castes. 

10. Animal ethics ; to kill any creature wantonly is a crime. 

1 1 . War ethics ; military virtues assigned a low place in the 
standard of character. 

12. At the heart of Brahmanism a core of true morality ; nat- 
uralism versus ritualism. 

B. The Ethics of Buddhism ; an Ideal of Renunciatio7i 

I. The Spe'ctdative Basis of the System. 

13. Similarity in the ethical motives of the movements which, 
in the sixth and fifth centuries b.c, agitated the chief lands of 
culture throughout the world {Rhys Davids). Buddha, Pythagoras, 
Isaiah, Zarathustra, Confucius. 

14. The social, religious, and climatic environment out of which 
Buddhism arose: (i) the oppressive caste system; (2) the ex- 
clusiveness of the way to salvation ; (3) the growing dissidence be- 
tween the requirements of the Brahmanic cult, with its burdensome 
sacrifices, and the growing intelligence and moral feelings of men ; 
(4) the depressing climate of the Ganges valley, into which the 
Aryans had now pressed. 

15. Jainism, the forerunner of Buddhism. 

16. Buddha '' the Enlightened." 

17. The first postulate of Buddhism is a denial of the soul 
theory (karma). 



12 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

1 8. The second postulate of Buddhism is that pain and sorrow 
are inseparable from existence. 

19. The third postulate of Buddhism is that desire is the cause 
of rebirth. 

20. The fourth postulate of Buddhism is that existence can be 
got rid of only by getting rid of all desires. The '' whole forest of 
desires," not one tree only, must be cut down {phammapala). 

II. The Moral Ideal. 

21. The fourfold way to Nirvana. 

22. Respecting the state of desirelessness. 

23. The double meaning of the term '' Nirvana" ; it means, first, 
that state of perfect peace which follows the attainment of absolute 
freedom from all desire ; and, second, extinction of existence, 
nothingness {Rhys Davids). 

24. The ethical content of Buddha's message. 

25. The cardinal virtues of the moral ideal : (i) man's first duty 
is to seek knowledge, for knowledge is the cure of desire ; (2) 
another cardinal virtue is universal benevolence ; (3) a third re- 
quirement is toleration ; (4) and a fourth is to proclaim to all 
the glad tidings. 

26. The different degrees of moral attainment : Arhatship ; the 
Order ; and the ordinary life. 

27. The naturalism of Buddhistic ethics ; Buddha's protest 
against ceremonial morality like the protest of the Hebrew 
prophets. 

28. The genuine altruistic spirit of Buddhism. Since it denies 
the existence of the soul, — the seed of another but different life 
(karma) only remaining at death, — when one strives to break the 
chain of existence, to make an end of the weary cycle of births, 
such a one is seeking good not for himself but for another. ''It 
is to save from sorrow the son of one's acts that one should seek 
to find the end " {Hopkms). 



THE ETHICS OF ZOROASTRL\NISM 13 

III. Expressions of the Ethical Spiiit of Buddhism. 

29. The moral ideal of Buddhism such a force in the life of 
the East as the moral ideal of Christianity has been in the life 
of the West. 

30. Buddhistic monasticism. 

31. Practical effects of the animal ethics of Buddhism. 

32. The Buddhistic spirit of religious toleration. '' There is no 
record known to me in the whole histor}- of Buddhism ... of any 
persecution of the followers of another faith " [Rhys Davids). 

33. Disapproval of the militar)^ life ; abatement of the war spirit 
in Buddhistic lands. 

34. Buddhistic charities an expression of a morality of sympathy 
and gentleness. 

35. Significance for the moral evolution of mankind of the 
wide ethical unity created by Buddhism ; the ethical conquests of 
Buddhism supplemental to those of Christianity. 

VIII 

THE ETHICS OF ZOROASTRIANISM ; AN IDEAL OF COMBAT 

A. Philosophical and Religions Ideas which cj'eated the 
Ethical Type 

1. Religious dualism. The thinkers of Iran never attained the 
conviction that He who is the author of the good in the 'world is 
the author likewise of the evil. Their dualistic world philosophy 
reacted powerfully on the moral ideal. 

2. Conception of the character of the supreme God, Ahura 
Mazda. Celestial morality as product and as cause. 

3. Doctrine of the sacredness of the elements, — fire, earth, and 
water. From this doctrine arose one large division of the moral code. 

4. The appearance of a great reformer, Zarathustra. The ethical 
system bears unmistakably the impress of the moral consciousness 
of a unique personality. 



I . HISTORY AS ETHICS 

B. The Moral Ideal 

5. The essence of the moral hfe is a struggle against evil and 
a striving after inner purification. '' A morality of vigor and man- 
liness " {Witttke). There was no place in the ideal for those 
ascetic virtues,— celibacy, fasting, self -torture, — which conferred 

sainthood in India. 

6. Truthfulness the paramount virtue, — a virtue fostered by 
the conception of Ahura as the god of sincerity and truth. 

7. Thedutyof industr)-, the ethics of labor. Labor was idealized, 
and all work, even the most lowly, made a sacred thing. 

8. Animal ethics. Iranian ethics, in opposition to Indian ethics, 
makes a distinction between useful animals and baneful creatures. 

9. Duty of protecting the purity of the elements. This division 
of the Persian code, based on the idea of the holiness of the ele- 
ments, will best be understood by comparing it with that division of 
the Christian code which is based on the idea of the holiness of a 
certain portion of time. 

C. The Practice 

10. Effects of the moral ideal upon the Persian character ; pro- 
duced '^a race of earnest Puritans," —a strong, self-reliant, ag- 
gressive, conquering race. ^^ For them the good dwelt in action" 

{Cuinont). 

11. Persian veneration for the truth. The Persians had an 
enviable reputation as a truth-speaking people. 

12. Influence of the ideal upon Persian history. As the ethical 
element of Mithraism it became a potent agency in the life of 
Rome during the first centuries of the Empire {Ctimont). Still an 
unexpended force in history. 



THE MORAL EVOLUTION IX ISRAEL 15 



IX 



THE MORAL EVOLUTION IN ISRAEL: AN IDEAL OF 
OBEDIENCE 

A. The Religioits Basis of Hebrezv Morality 

1. Introductory : Israel's historic task a moral one. 

2. The conception of deity ; Yahweh at first a tribal god. The 
essential point of difference between the Israelites and the kindred 
Semitic tribes about them was that the Israelites were monolatrists, 
while these kindred tribes were pol}1:heists. This monolatrism was 
the starting point of a religious and ethical development charged 
with the deepest significance not alone for Israel but for humanity. 

3. The belief in a supematurally revealed law. After the idea 
of God, this was the most potent force in molding the moral ideal 
of Israel. 

4. Special ground of the Israelites' feeling that obedience to the 
law was their highest duty. The deliverance from Eg}'ptian bond- 
age and the covenant at Mt. Sinai. 

5 . The rite of sacrifice is here ethicalized and becomes a vehicle 
of moral instruction. A remarkable evolution. 

6. The vagueness of the belief in an afterlife caused much 
troubled ethical speculation and led to theories of the moral govern- 
ment of the world which have influenced deeply the thoughts and 
the conduct of men. 

B. TJie Evohition of the Moral Ideal 
I. TJie Moral Development before the Exile. 

7. The primitive moral code that of the Semitic pastoral nomad. 
The principle of collective responsibility prevailed, and blood re- 
venge was a sacred dut}'. 

8. The Decalogue an embodiment of this early morality. The 
Ten Commandments are rules governing the conduct of members 



l6 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

of the same community towards one another only, and not towards 
outsiders. 

9. The moral anarchy of the age of the judges, which followed 
the migration and settlement in Canaan, like the moral anarchy 
which followed the migration and settlement of the German tribes 
in the provinces of the Roman Empire. The moral peril in tran- 
sition periods. 

10. Prophetism the chief phenomenon in Hebrew history. Its 
different elements, — nomadic, socialistic, predictive, ethical, mono- 
theistic ( Wellhatise7i) ; the ethical element the one historically 
important. 

11. The beginning of historical prophetism ; Elijah and Elisha. 
There was in this early prophetism a large nomadic element. 
It was vehement, fanatical, and intolerant, like English Puritaji- 
ism, which, in truth, was a revival of it. Its appearance on the 
whole one of the most important events in the moral history of 
the world. 

12. The moral advance represented by Amos (760 B.C.) and 
Rosea (738-735 b.c). A true social morality; what pleases Yah- 
weh is not fasts and sacrifices but justice and righteousness. We 
reach here ethical monolatry ; ethical monotheism lies not far in 
the future. 

13. The ideal of the brotherhood of nations and universal peace. 
The relation of this ideal to the growth of the w^orld power of 
Assyria. Isaiah and Micah the representatives of this ethical 
cosmopolitanism. 

14. Denunciatory prophecy correlated with the lack of a belief 
in a future life of rewards and punishments (Re?iaii). 

15. The prophetic spirit creates a unique ethical literature. The 
moral consciousness of the loftier minds in Israel set an indelible 
ethical stamp upon the myths and legends of the nation and created 
a sacred literature that has been a main motive force in the moral 
evolution of the Western world. 

16. The moralizing of pagan festivals and cults. The same 
ethical spirit that moralized the literature gave a moral content, 



THE MORAL EVOLUTION IN ISRAEL 17 

meaning, and educative value to festivals and cults which were at 
first without ethical import {WellhaiLsen). 

17. The composite morality of the Deuteronomic code ; it con- 
tained priestly elements and elements bearing the stamp of the 
true prophetic spirit. 

18. The ritual ethics of the code ; here the dominant motive of 
the compilers is a dread and abhorrence of idolatry, like the dread 
and abhorrence of heresy in medieval times in Europe. This part 
of the code has exercised a sinister influence upon the development 
of morality from King Josiah down to our own day. 

19. Social ethics of the code; its spirit of charity and tender- 
ness towards the poor and the oppressed, '' Never was the love of 
the humble and neglected carried so far " {Renan). 

20. Defects (other than its ritualistic tendencies) and limitations 
of the code ; its utilitarian, outer, narrow, and intolerant spirit ; 
its savage war ethics. 

II. The Morality of the Prophets of the Exile. 

21. The effects of the captivity upon the moral evolution in 
Israel. 

22. The second Isaiah ; ethical monotheism at last. Religion 
and morality at one. 

23. Repudiation of the doctrine of collective responsibility. 

24. The doctrine of the suffering of the righteous as vicarious 
and expiatory ; the ideal of the Suffering Servant of Yahweh and 
its historical importance and ethical value. 

III. The Moral Life in the Pos text lie Age. 

2 5 . A ritual morality. The deification of the Law. A confusion 
of moral values. 

26. The establishment of the synagogue and its relation to the 
ethical development in dispersed Israel and among the peoples that 
were to receive ethical instruction from her. The synagogue the 
prototype of the Christian basilica and the Puritan meetinghouse. 



l8 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

27. The new doctrine of immortality. The various influences 
which concurred to create this new conception of the hereafter, and 
to secure for this view, by the end of the Greek period, a wide 
acceptance. The doctrine, with its correlate teaching of future re- 
wards and punishments, one of the most important products, in its 
ethical consequences, of the life and experiences of ancient Israel. 

28. The expansion of the moral sympathies in the Hellenistic 
age. A register of the deepening and broadening of the moral 
sympathies is found in the Psalms of this period and the so-called 
Wisdom books. 

X 

THE MORTAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF HELLAS: AN IDEAL OF 
SELF-REALIZATION 

A. histittitions and Ideas which determiyied the Moral Type 

1. The city-state the mold and sphere of Greek morality. The 
highest form of virtue was thought attainable only by the citizen. 

2. The view of man's nature as good. This left no place for 
asceticism in the moral life. 

3. The idea of harmony in the god world; the disappearance 
of Eg}^tian and Persian dualism. This emptied the moral type of 
ever}1:hing like strenuousness and battle. 

4. The character of the Greek Olympus. Apollo as the guardian 
of Greek morality. Delphi and Eleusis. 

5. The absence of a priestly class. The supreme importance of 
this for Greek morals in preventing the gro^^1:h of a theocratic 
morality ; Greek morals were lay or secular. 

6. The doctrine of race election ; Hellenes and Barbarians 
(Smyth). This race egoism dictated large sections of the moral 
code. 

B. The Moral Ideal 

7. Civic and militar}' duties. Devotion to one's city the cardinal 
requirement; ''good citizen" and ''good man" equivalent terms. 



THE MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF HELLAS 19 

The virtue we name self-sacrifice hidden under the Greek mihtary 
virtue of courage. 

8. The intellectual virtues ; mental culture a duty, since self- 
realization calls especially for the development of the mind, man's 
true self. 

9. The development of the body a dut}^ ; the ethical impulse in 
Greek athleticism. Cf. Asiatic asceticism. 

10. Identification of moral goodness with beaut)^ " The beauti- 
ful \?> per se the good ; in enjoying and creating the beautiful, man 
is moral" {Wuttke). 

1 1 . Self-realization, conformably to nature, sums up the moral 
code. *' Be what you are " {Pindar), 

C. Limitations and Defects of the Ideal 

12. Its aristocratic character. '' Greece had only one thing 
wanting, — she despised the humble, and did not feel the need of 
a just God " {Renan). Cf. Brahmanic class morality. 

13. The exclusion of non-Greek races from the moral sphere. 
Barbarians might be hunted like animals (Aristotle). 

14. The practical exclusion of slaves, who were regarded as 
incapable of a true morality. 

1 5 . The practical exclusion of the domestic sphere. Even Plato 
would sacrifice the family to the state. 

16. The disesteem of industrial virtues. All manual work was 
regarded as ignoble and degrading. Aristotle taught that there 
is ''no room for moral excellence" in laborers and traders. The 
grounds of this feeling. Cf. Chinese, Persian, and Hebrew attitude 
towards labor. 

1 7. Forgiveness looked upon as a weakness ; the manliness of 
revenge. 

18. The low estimation of truthfulness; even the word sworn 
by the oath god was often broken. 



20 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

D. Facts ajid Evidences of the Moral Evolution 

19. The morality of the Homeric age; Odysseus its embodi- 
ment. '' The inmost moral convictions of a people are shown more 
plainly in the character of its heroes than in its gods " {IVendt). 

20. The later philosophical criticism of the Homeric stories of 
the gods. The moralization of the m)1:h of Heracles. 

2 1 . The transition of the continuance theor}- regarding life after 
death into the retribution theor}'. Hades, the Elysian Fields, Tar- 
tarus, and the judges of the dead, IMinos and Rhadamanthus. 

22. The evolution of the doctrine of divine emy into that of 
Nemesis. This ethical development represented by Herodotus, 
yEschylus, and Thucydides. 

23. The further development of the doctrine of Nemesis. Both 
^^schylus and Sophocles glimpsed the profound ethical truth that 

the vicissitudes of human life are the sign neither of the emy nor 
the righteous anger of the gods, but of the divine pit}^ and love. 

24. The notion of an inherited curse, as treated by the trage- 
dians, shows the primitive theor\" of collective responsibility being 
transformed, through growing ethical feeling, into the doctrine of 
individual responsibility. 

25. The amelioration of war rules and practices. The efforts of 
the Amphictyonic League to lay restraint upon the license of war. 

26. Efforts to prevent war between Greek and Greek by arbi- 
tration. The consecration of the land of Elis to perpetual peace, 
and the establishment of a truce during the celebration of the 
Olympic games. 

27. Socrates and his relation to the moral movement. His 
identification of knowledge and virtue ; to see the good is to pur- 
sue it. His ethics in the main the ethics of his time and place. 

28. Plato and his ethical system. The four cardinal virtues — 
wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. The essence of the 
moral evolution in the Christian world has consisted in a growing 
richness, refinement, and extension of these Greek forms of moral 
excellence. Like Socrates, Plato stood on wholly Greek ground ; 



ROMAN MORALS : AN IDEAL OF JUSTICE 2 I 

his ethics in the main a justification of the common Greek 
moraUty of his time. 

29. Aristotle and his ethics. He assumes as the basis of his 
system the moral inequality of men. His influence on medieval 
Christian ethics. 

30. Decay of the Greek city-state and the accompanying decay 
of the Greek ideal of character. 

31. Ethical products of the Hellenistic age; Stoicism and 
Epicureanism. 

32. The advance, in the cosmopolitan communities of the Hellen- 
istic world, in humanitarian feelings and in ethical universalism a 
preparation for the incoming of the new moral idea of Christianity. 



XI 

ROMAN MORALS: AN IDEAL OF JUSTICE 

A. Institutions ajid Conditio7is of Life which molded the Early 

Moral Code 

1. The Roman family ; ancestor worship and thQ patria potestas. 
A seed plot of morals. 

2. The city-state, its constitution and aims. The citizen's chief 
sphere of moral activity. 

3. The occupations of farming and war ; these created sturdy 
and heroic virtues. 

4. The religion. The Roman cults were largely nonethical, yet 
in various ways the religion quickened and strengthened the sense 
of duty. 

B. The Primitive Mo7'al Type 

5. The ethics of the family. The chief virtue filial obedience. 

6. Civic and militar}^ virtues. Devotion to the state the saving 
virtue in the Roman ideal of character. 



2 2 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

7. The industrial virtues. The traditional peasant moral quali- 
ties of simplicity, frugality, and industry formed the tough fiber 
of the early Roman character. 

8. Religious duties. There were religious duties but hardly re- 
ligious virtues, the careful performance of religious duties being a 
phase of patriotism. 

9. The ethics of war. Inwar morals Rome was the child of her age. 

10. Defects of the type : (i) its narrow aristocratic character; 
(2) lack of the gentler and the intellectual virtues. 

C. The Moral Evolution under the Republic 

1 1 . The maintenance of the standard in early times. The quali- 
ties of character celebrated by legend. 

12. The widening of the moral sympathies through the influence 
of conquests and advance in civilization the most important phase 
of the moral evolution up to the end of the Republic. The forces 
which effected the reconstruction of Roman society through the 
successive widenings of the range of classes and peoples admitted 
to the rights of citizenship were, in the last analysis, ethical rather 
than political or economic. Cf. the political revolutions and social 
reconstructions in the modern world. 

13. Causes of the general decline in morals under the later 
Republic : (i) the passing of the city state ; (2) the economic de- 
cay of the rural class ; (3) the growth of the slave system ; (4) the 
disesteem of the industrial virtues ; (5) the free distribution of corn ; 
(6) the gladiatorial games ; (7) decay of religious faith ; (8) extremes 
of wealth and poverty ; (9) demoralizing influence of Eastern luxury 
and vice. 

14. Ethical values in the Greek and Oriental civilizations; 
modifications effected in the Roman moral type through contact 
with these older cultures. 

D. The Moral Evolution U7ider the Pagan Empire 

1 5 . The bad bequest. The morally debased society of the early 
Empire largely a heritage from the republican period ; but there 



ROMAN MORALS: AN IDEAL OF JUSTICE 23 

were, in the imperial system, fresh causes of depression of the 
moral standard. 

16. The old and the new. ''A death is more impressive than 
a birth " ( Wedgwood), but the birth enfolds the promise and potency 
of the future. 

17. The new composite ideal. The ethical contribution made 
by Hellas through Greek literature and philosophy. 

18. Evidences in literature of the softening of the moral feel- 
ings. Cicero, Vergil, Juvenal, and Seneca the representatives of 
this ethical development. 

19. The widening of the moral horizon ; ethical universalism as 
the outcome of the world empire and of Stoicism. In the mani- 
fold forces making for cosmopolitanism, the age of the Empire like 
our own age. Cicero, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius the 
representatives of the moral movement. 

20. The Stoic doctrine of the law of nature and its ethical 
influence. 

21. Moralizing influence of Stoicism, especially its teaching of 
the equality of all men, on Roman government and law. '' In the 
Stoic Emperors ... we probably find the earliest example of great 
moral principles applied to legislation on a large scale " {Clifford). 

22. Amelioration of slavery under the pagan Emperors ; an im- 
portant phase of the moral evolution of the pre-Christian period. 

23. Ethics of the persecution of the Christians by the pagan 
Emperors. 

24. Stoic ethical teachings Christian in tone and sentiment. 

25. Some divergencies between Roman and Christian ethics. 
The Roman moral consciousness touching revenge, pity or com- 
passion for suffering, and suicide. 

26. The Roman ethics of war ; notwithstanding the substantial 
progress made in the other domains of the moral life, in that of 
war there was practically no change under the pagan Emperors. 

27. The three periods of the Roman ethical development ; 
the moral advance marked '' by the successive ascendancy of 
the Roman, the Greek, and the Egyptian spirit " {Lecky). The 



24 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

insufficiency of Stoicism, which had united the best elements of 
the Greek and Roman types of character, as a moral guide for 
the multitude. 

28. The Orient, through the mediation of religion (Egyptian, 
Persian, Hebrew), now contributes to the moral consciousness of 
the West elements which the classical cultures could not supply, 
and thus is opened a new era in the moral life of the European 
peoples. 

XII 

THE ETHICS OF CHRISTIANITY: AN IDEAL OF SELF- 
SACRIFICE 

A. Religious Ideas and Theological Doctrines which created the 
New Ideal of Excellence 

1. The doctrine of a supernaturally revealed moral law. 

2. The doctrine of the unity of God and his universal father- 
hood. This teaching especially rich in ethical consequences. 

3. The idea of a future life of rewards and punishments. 

4. The teaching of the sanctity of human life. 

5. The devil theory and demonism. 

6. The tenet of the fall of man and hereditary guilt. This 
doctrine the spring and source of a large part of Christian theo- 
logical ethics. 

7. The doctrine of a divine atonement. 

8. The personality of the Prophet of Nazareth. 

B. The Moral Ideal 

9. The Founder of Christianity had made love and service of 
others the chief duty of man, but the theology of the Church early 
made right belief the indispensable, saving virtue. The antinomy 
thus introduced into Christian ethics has created a fateful dualism 
in the moral life and history of all the Christian centuries after 
the third, — a dualism like that created in Hebrew history by the 



HISTORY OF THE AGE OF ASCETICISM 25 

opposition between the morality of ritualism and that of proph- 
etism. This conflict, in its -varying forms, the chief matter in 
the moral history of Christendom. 

10. The creation of specific Christian types (monastic, chivalric, 
etc.) through an exaggerated emphasis laid upon some particular 
virtue or virtues, the absorption of pagan elements, racial in- 
fluences, etc. 

11. The subordinate place in the ideal assigned the civic and 
intellectual virtues. The Church takes the place of the city as 
the object of moral enthusiasm and self-devotion, and faith is 
substituted for reason. Man's celestial citizenship determines the 
sphere of his moral activities, while the subjection of the indi- 
vidual judgment and conscience to the deified authority- of the 
Scriptures becomes a cardinal duty. 



XIII 

THE MORAL HISTORY OF THE AGE OF ASCETICISM 

A. Conceptions of Life, Religious Teachings, and Social Con- 
ditions that produced the Ascetic Ideal of Goodness ; its 
Different Types 

1. General fostering causes of asceticism or the spirit of world 
renunciation. 

2. Germs of asceticism in Christian teachings. 

3. The social and moral state of the Graeco- Roman world. 

4. The chief virtues of the ascetic ideal ; the eremitic and the 
monastic type. 

5. The moral standard for the ordinary life. 

B. The Moral Life of the Period 

6. Monasticism and the new social conscience. Moral qualities 
conserved and cradled in the medieval monasteries. 



26 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

7. The new conscience condemns and finally suppresses the 
gladiatorial games. ''There is scarcely any other reform so im- 
portant in the moral history of mankind " {Lecky). 

8. The new conscience condemns the exposition of infants and 
suicide. 

9. The great missionary propaganda of the centuries from the 
sixth to the ninth as an expression of Christian altruism. The sig- 
nificance of this movement in the moral history of the European 
nations ; a new religion means a new conscience. 

10. The lives of the saints. ''They are a forcible protest in 
flesh and blood against the tyranny of the grosser nature " {Leslie 
Stephens). 

1 1 . Almsgiving and the founding of charitable institutions 
another expression of the altruistic spirit of the new religion. 

12. Mitigations of slavery. The new religion effected, during 
the period under review, ameliorations in the lot of the slave ; but 
the slave system, like the war system, passed over into Christian 
civilization as an unchanged heritage from the ancient world. 

j 1 3 . St. Augustine and his City of God. The influence of this 
work on the evolution of Christian morals. " All the arrogance, 
all the exclusiveness, all the privilege, for which the city of man 
no longer afforded any escape found a refuge in the city of God " 
{Wedgwood). 

14. The broadening moral movement in progress in the ancient 
world is checked. 

15. Loss of the virtue of toleration; the suppression (i) of 
liberty of worship, and (2) of freedom of thought {Lecky). 

16. "Between moralities"; the moral anarchy of the Mero- 
vingian age. The new-forming ethical ideal. 



THE ETHICS OF ISLAM 27 

XIV 

THE ETHICS OF ISLAM 
A. Religious Basis of the Moral System 

1 . The doctrine of the unity of God ; a pure ethical mono- 
theism. 

2. The dogma of salvation by belief. 

3. An unchangeable moral law. 

B. The Moral Code 

4. General nature of the code ; it lays emphasis upon the per- 
formance of definitely prescribed acts. 

5. The duty and the virtue of right belief. 

6. Intolerance a virtue, and fighting for the true religion a 
cardinal duty. Mohammed frankly and without scruple adopted 
the war system of his time and race. 

7. Provisions of the code respecting slavery. 

8. Family morals ; polygamy is accepted and recognized as 
ethical ; infanticide, one of the worst evils of Arabian society, 
is positively prohibited. 

9. The prohibition of gambling and the use of intoxicating 
liquors. 

10. Animal ethics. In this department the code is on a level 
with the Hebrew code. 

C. The Moral Practice 

11. Mohammedan morality depressed by social and racial in- 
fluences. 

12. Influence upon Moslem history of the duty of fighting for 
the true faith. 

13. Mitigation of Oriental barbarities in war. 

14. Intolerance as the effect of religious principles. 



28 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

15. The slave trade under Islam. ''The recognition of the 
slave traffic by Mohammedanism has been, and is to this day, a 
curse to Africa and a source of disturbance to the world's politics " 
{Hob house). 

16. Polygamy under Islam, 

17. Drunkenness in Mohammedan countries. This vice, so 
common in Christian lands, is almost unknown in lands where 
the faith of the Koran is dominant. 

18. Moslem charit}'. 

19. The favorable moral influence of Islam upon races on or 
near the level of savagery. 

20. Disastrous effects upon Mohammedan morality of a moral 
code conceived as sacred and unchangeable. 

XV 

THE MORAL LIFE OF EUROPE DURING THE AGE OF 
CHIVALRY 

A. The Moral Ideal of Knighthood and its Adoption by the Church 

1 . The ideal of chivalry ; a composite ideal made up of pagan 
and Christian virtues. 

2. Importance of its adoption and consecration by the Church. 

3. The genius of Christianity opposed to the war spirit; its 
doctrine of nonresistance a new moral principle, unknown to pre- 
Christian civilizations {Vebleji). 

4. Influences that fostered the gro\\1:h of a military spirit in the 
Church : ( i ) the heritage of the war ethics of the ancient world ; 
(2) the military spirit of the German race ; (3) the war records 
of the Old Testament ; and (4) the armed propaganda of Islam. 

B. The Chief Moral Phenomena of the Period 

5 . Influence of the ideal of chivalry upon the history of the epoch. 

6. Chivalry and the crusades. The true crusading knight the 
incarnation of the best conscience of the time. 



RENAISSANCE MORALS 29 

7. Romance literature as an expression of the ethical spirit of 
the age. The legend of the Holy Grail. 

8. Contribution of chivalry to the moral heritage of the Chris- 
tian world. The idealization of woman. 

9. Growing disuse of the trial by wager of battle, 

10. Restrictions on the right of private war ; the Truce of God. 

1 1 . Progress in the ethics of war ; sale into slavery of Christian 
captives condemned. 

12. What part moral motives played in the emancipation of 
the serfs. 

13. Moralit)^ in the monasteries: the new orders; the Cluny 
moral reform. 

14. The moral significance of the rise of the mendicant orders. 
'' There was need of the exaggeration of self-sacrifice taught by 
Francis to recall humanity to a sense of its obligations " (Lea). 

15. The ethics of scholasticism. 



XVI 

RENAISSANCE MORALS : A REVIVAL OF THE GREEK IDEAL 
OF SELF-REALIZATION 

A. Formative hifliiences 

1 . The Renaissance ; the new^ intellectual life. 

2. The decay of feudalism and the rise of monarchy ; court life. 

3. The growth of the towns ; the workshop and the market as 
molders of morals. 

B. Leading Facts of the Moral Histoiy of the Age 

4. Revival of the classical conception of life ; the new birth of 
the European conscience. 

5. Theological moralit}^ ; the ethics of persecution. 

6. Effects of the Inquisition upon the virtue of humanit)' and 
openmindedness ; the reintroduction of torture in criminal juris- 
prudence. 



30 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

7. Political morality ; Machiavellian ethics. Influence of The 
Prifice on public morals. 

8. The ethical value of the ideal of the courtier. 

9. The morality of industry and trade ; the moral standard of 
the trader gradually supersedes that of the knight. 



XVII 

THE ETHICAL IMPORT OF THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION 

A. Principles of the Reformation of Import for Morals ; the Ethi- 
cal Ideals of Catholicism and Protestantistn Com,pared 

1. The principle of the self -sovereignty of the individual soul. 

2. The reemphasized principle of salvation by right belief. 

3. Comparison of the moral ideal of Protestantism with that of 
Roman Catholicism. 

B. Some Special Ethical Outcomes of the Religious Reform 

4. The reform movement ultimately reenforces the ethical tend- 
encies of the Renaissance. The duty of inquiry. 

5. Protestantism brings into disesteem the monastic ideal of 
excellence. 

6. Effects upon industrial morals of the dissolution of the 
monasteries. 

7. Effects upon morals of the abolition of purgatory. 

8. The effects of the religious reform upon the virtue of toleration. 



THE AGE OF ETHICAL RECONSTRUCTION 31 



XVIII 

THE AGE OF ETHICAL RECONSTRUCTION: THE NEW 
SOCIAL AND INTERNATIONAL CONSCIENCE 

A. Determining Caitses of the Ethical Movement 

1. The incoming of democracy. The essential ethical spirit of 
democracy the same as that of Christianity. 

2. The new industrialism. '' The causes which most disturbed 
or accelerated the moral progress of society in antiquity were the 
appearance of great men ; in modern times they have been the 
appearance of great inventions " {Lecky). 

3. The doctrine of evolution. 

4. General intellectual progress. 

5. The decline of dogmatic theology. 

6. Growing intimacy of international relations. 

B. Ethical Readjicstments in Different Domains of Life 
and ThoiLght 

I. The Ethics of Democracy. 

7. Moral nature of the causes of the democratic revolution ; the 
ethical implications of the watchwords of democracy, — '' rights," 
" liberty," ''equality." 

8. The ethics of democracy rejects class morality. 

9. The ethical import of education by the state ; the seculari- 
zation of morals. 

10. The moralization of government ; the democratic state as- 
sumes the social-ethical functions of the Church. 

II. The Ethics of Indus tt ialism . 

11. The union of modern industry and science. 

12. The divorce of modern industry and ethics; economic 
Machiavellism. 



32 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

13. How the new industrialism has tended to make the economic 
Ufe unmoral. 

14. Modification of ethical judgments respecting various prin- 
ciples and conventions of modern industrialism. 

15. Socialism as an expression of these new ethical feelings 
and convictions. 

III. The Ethics of Science. 

16. Influence of science upon the growth of the virtue of intel- 
lectual sincerity. 

17. Egoistic tendencies of the doctrine of evolution through the 
survival of the fittest. The Nietzsche superman. 

18. Altruism versus egoism in the cosmic process. "Besides 
the law of mutual struggle there is in nature the law of mutual 
aid " {Kropotkin). 

19. Evolution and animal ethics. 

IV. The Purification and Secularization of the Ethics of Religion. 

20. The progressive moralization of the idea of God. '' Old 
theology is always becoming new in the vitalizing influence of 
ethics " {Newman Smyth). 

2 1 . The moralization of the conception of hell. 

22. Exchange in rank of the theological and the natural virtues. 

23. Extension to religious ethics of the principle of individual 
responsibility. 

V. Social Ethics: the Growth of the New Social Conscience. 

24. As shown in the history of the African slave trade and of 
negro slavery. 

• 25. As shown in society's treatment of its unfortunate and de- 
linquent members : from vagrant laws to associated charities ; from 
burning of witches to asylums for the insane ; from the dungeon 
to the reformatory {Henderson), 



THE AGE OF ETHICAL RECONSTRUCTION 33 

26. As shown in changed sentiment respecting duehng, the 
lottery, gambUng, and the Hquor traffic. 

VI. Progress in International Ethics. 

27. The growing assimilation of international to private morality. 

28. The gradual ethicizing of the relations of the advanced to 
the backward races — '' the white man's burden." 

29. Progress in war ethics. Hugo Grotius's Peace and War ; 
the Geneva conventions (1864 and 1868). 

30. Movement for the abolition of war — a moral issue. The 
Hague conferences (1899 and 1907). 

31. " The moral damage of war." 

32. Obsolescence of war as a school of moral discipline. 

33. The ethical kinship of men the true basis of the universal 
state. The nation state, like the clan state and the city state, but 
a passing phase of the moral evolution of mankind. 



RECOMMENDED READINGS 



The books here named include only works in English, and such as are easily 
accessible to the student. The list is restricted to works bearing on the history 
of the moral life of mankind, and hence the omission of the classical works on the 
philosophy of ethics or on the history of ethical theories. A few works, however, 
whose aim is the systematic exposition of ethical principles are referred to, but 
only when they contain facts illustrating phases of the moral^evolution which is 
the subject of the foregoing lectures. 

I. Introduction. — Hobhouse, Morals in- Evohition, 1906, vol. i. Lecky, His- 
tory of Eiiropeaji Morals, 3d ed., vol. i, pp. 130-160. MacCunn, The Making of 
Character, 1908, pt. ii, ch. ix, "Educational Value of Moral Ideals." Emerson, 
Essays on The Sovereignty of Ethics and Character. Thilly, Introdtiction to Ethics, 
ch. i, " The Nature and Method of Ethics " ; a manual designed as an introduction 
to philosophical ethics, yet containing facts and comments valuable to the student 
of the history of morals. Sidgwick, Outlines of the History of Ethics, 1886 ; this 
is a history of ethical speculation, but much can be gathered from it respecting 
the history of the common moral consciousness of different ages and peoples. 
Seligman, The Econoniic Interpretation of History, 2d ed., 1907. 

II. The Dawn of Morality : Conscience in the Kinship Group. — De\vey and 
Tufts, Ethics, pt. i, " Early Group Life " ; ch. iv, " Group Morality — Custom and 
Mores." Wundt, Ethics — The Facts of the Moral Life, pt. i, ch. iii, " Custom 
and the Moral Life." Darwin, The Descent of Man, chs. iv and v. Thomas, Sex 
and Society, 1907, " Sex and Primitive Morality," pp. 149-172. Sumner, Folkways, 
1907. Hobhouse, Aforals in Evoluiioti, pt. ii, ch. ii, pp. 50-75, " Ethical Concep- 
tions in Early Thought." Wake, The Evohction of Morality, 1878, vol. i, pt. i, 
chs. i-vii. Mackenzie, A Manual of Ethics, 4th ed., bk. i, ch. iv, " The Evolution 
of Conduct"; ch. v, "The Growth of the Moral Judgment." Coulanges, 
FusTEL DE, The Ancient City, bk. ii, ch. ix, " The Morals of the Ancient Family." 

III. The Moral Life of Ancient Egypt. — Petrie, Religion and Conscience in 
Ancient Egypt, 1898, lect. v, "The Nature of Conscience"; lect. vi, "The Inner 
Duties " ; lect. vii, " The Outer Duties." The Egyptian Book of the Dead, tr. Davis, 
ch. cxxv, for the Negative Confession. Records of the Past, New Series, vol. iii, 
pp. 1-35, for the moral precepts of Ptahotep. Budge, Egyptian Ideas of the Future 
Life, 1899, ch. iv, "The Judgment of the Dead." T k^'LO'^, Ancient Ideals, vol. i, 
pp. 22-25. 

IV. The Morality of the Babylonians and Assyrians. — The Code of Ham- 
murabi, tr. Harper. Jastrow, The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria, 1898, ch. 
xviii, " Penitential Psalms," and ch. xxvii, pp. 693-696, for a brief summary of the 
moral code. King, Babylajtiatt Religion and Mythology, 1899, ch. vi, " The Duty 

34 



RECOMMENDED READINGS 35 

of Man to his God and to his Neighbor." Sayce, The Religions of Ancient Egypt 
and Babylonia, 1903, pt. ii, ch. x, "Astro-Theology and the Moral Element in Baby- 
lonian Religion," pp. 487-501. Taylor, Ancient Ideals, ch. ii, pp. 35-44. 

V. Chinese Morals : an Ideal of Filial Piety. — The Chifiese Classics, tr. 
Legge, 2d ed., vol. i, " Confucian Analects," " The Great Learning," and " The 
Doctrine of the Mean " ; vol. ii, " The Works of Mencius." The Sacred Books of the 
East, ed. Max Miiller, vol. iii, " The Hsiao King or Classic of Filial Piety." Mar- 
tin, The Lore of Cathay, 1901, bk. iii, ch. xii, "The Ethical Philosophy of the 
Chinese. " Hobhouse, Morals in Evohitiofi, pt. ii, ch. v, " Ethical Idealism." 
WUTTKE, Christian Ethics, tr. Lacroix, 1873, "^o^- ^' § 7' PP- 43~47- 

VI. Japanese Morals : an Ideal of Loyalty. — Nitobe, Bushido : The Soul of 
Japan, loth ed., 1905 ; Bushido is the Japanese knightly ideal of character, — the 
moral code of the samurai which is profoundly influencing the morality of new 
Japan. Griffis, The Religion of Japan, 4th ed., ch. iv, " The Chinese Ethical Sys- 
tem in Japan " ; ch. v, " Confucianism in its Philosophical Form." Scherer, What 
is Japa7iese Morality?, 1906. The Outlook, July, 1908, pp. 395-400, " On the Busi- 
ness Morals of Japan," by George Trumbull Ladd. Hearn, Lafcadio, Out of the 
East. Sakurai, Human Bullets ; a narrative of personal experience in the Russo- 
Japanese War illustrative of the moral quality of Japanese patriotism. 

VII. The Ethical Ideals of India. — For the ethics of Brahmanism : The Rama- 
yana and the Mahabharata, condensed and translated by Romesh C. Dutt. " Rama 
and Sita [the hero and heroine of the Ramaya7td\ are the Hindu ideals of a per- 
fect man and a perfect woman ; their truth under trials and temptations, their 
endurance under privations, and their devotion to duty under all vicissitudes of for- 
tune, form the Hindu ideal of a perfect life. In this respect the Ramayana gives 
us a true picture of Hindu faith and righteous life, as Dante's Divijie Comedy gives 
us a picture of the faith and belief of the Middle Ages in Europe " {Dutt). The 
Sacred Books of the East, ed. Max Miiller, vol. xxv, " The Laws of Manu." Hop- 
kins, The Religiofts of India, \'^C)^, passim. HoBHOUSE, Morals ift Evolution, pt. ii, 
ch. iii, " The World and the Spirit." Wedgwood, TTie Moral Ideal, 2d ed., ch. i, 
" India and the Primal Unity." Taylor, Ancient Ideals, ch. iii, " India." 

For the ethics of Buddhism : The Sacred Books of the East, ed. Max Miiller, 
2d ed., pt. i, vol. x, " The Dharmmapala." Rhys, Davids, Buddhism, its History 
and Literature, 1896, especially lects. iv and v ; and The Hibbert Lecttires for 1881. 
Hardy, A Alanual of Buddhism, 1880, ch. x, "The Ethics of Buddhism." War- 
ren, Buddhism in Trajislation, i?)()6, passim. T AY'LOR, Ancie7it Ideals, ch. iv, "The 
Buddha." 

VIII. The Ethics of Zoroastrianism : an Ideal of Combat. — The Sacred 
Books of the East, vol. iv, 2d ed., " The Zend-Avesta," pt. i, " The Vendidad." 
Wedgwood, The Moral Ideal, 2d ed., ch. ii, " Persia and the Religion of Com- 
bat." Paulsen, System of Ethics, tr. Thilly, ch. iv. Cumont, The Mysteries of 
Mithra, tr. McCormack. 

IX. The Moral Evolution in Israel : an Ideal of Obedience. — In the case of 
Israel religion and morality were so closely united that the history of the religious 
development is necessarily a history also of the ethical. Hence the history of 



36 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

the moral evolution must be sought in the comprehensive general histories of 
Israel ; after the Old Testa?}ie7it, however, the following works of small compass 
will meet the first needs of the nonspecial student : Budde, The Religion of Israel 
to the Exile ; Qylyx^y.^ Jewish Religious Life after the Exile ; CoRNiLL, History of 
the People of Israel^ tr. Carruth ; and DuFF, The Theology and Ethics of the He- 
brews. In connection with these the student should read Hobhouse, Morals in 
Evolution, pt. ii, ch. iv, " Monotheism" (first part) ; Dewey and Tufts, Ethics, ch. 
vi, " The Hebrew Moral Development " ; and Toy, Jicdaisin ajid Christianity, 
ch. V, " Ethics " (first part). 

X. The Moral Consciousness of Hellas : an Ideal of Self-Realization. — The 
facts illustrating the moral evolution in ancient Greece must be gleaned from the 
whole field of Greek history, literature, and philosophy. The following works, 
however, will indicate the general nature of the movement and suggest to the 
student viewpoints : Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, tr. Weldon. The Dia- 
logues of Plato, tr. Jowett, "The RepubHc," "Laws," and "Gorgias"; all these 
are of the deepest interest to the student of the Greek moral ideal. Plutarch, 
Morals, tr. Shillito. Wedgwood, The Moral Ideal, ch. iii, " Greece and the Har- 
mony of Opposites." SiDGWiCK, History of Ethics, ch. ii, " Greek and Graeco- 
Roman Ethics." Davidson, The Edtccation of the Greek People, 1894, ch. ii, " Greek 
Life and its Ideals " ; ch. v, " The Effort to find in Individualism a Basis of Social 
Order." Much information on the moral life of Hellas will be found in Mahaffy, 
Greek Life and Thought and Social Life of the Greeks. Zeller, The Stoics, Epicu- 
reans and Sceptics, tr. Reichel, 1892, pt. ii, chs. x-xii, for the ethics of the Stoics ; 
and pt. iii, chs. xix and xx, for the ethics of the Epicureans. Hobhouse, Morals 
in Evolution, pt.ii, ch. vi, " Philosophic Ethics." Paulsen, A System of Ethics, tr. 
Thilly, bk. i, ch. i, " The Conception of Life and Moral Philosophy among the 
Greeks." Dewey and Tufts, Ethics, ch. vii, "The Moral Development of the 
Greeks." Wundt, Ethics — The Facts of the Moral Life, pp. 100-112, on ideas of 
life after death and the development of the ideas of reward and punishment. 
Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, ed. Bradley, 5th ed.,.bk. iii, ch. v, " The Greek and 
the Modern Conception of Virtue " ; this chapter has been justly characterized 
as " the most original and suggestive chapter in the whole of that great work." 
For some remarks on the limitations of the Greek moral ideal, see Smyth, 
Christian Ethics, pp. 129-134. International Journal of Ethics, April, 1902, "The 
Ethical Value of Hellenism," by Alfred W. Benn. 

XI. Roman Morals : an Ideal of Justice. — Cicero, Offices, or Moral Duties, 
tr. Edmonds. Of this work Sidgwick says, " There is no ancient treatise which 
has done more to communicate a knowledge of ancient morals." Marcus 
Aurelius, Meditatiojis, tr. Long. Seneca, Minor Dialogues, tr. Stewart; see 
essay, " On Clemency." Epictetus, Discourses, tr. Long. Sidgwick, History of 
Ethics, ch. ii, §§ 19-21. Lecky, History of European Morals fivtn Augustus to 
Charlemagne, 3d ed., vol. i, ch. ii, "The Pagan Empire"; ch. iii, "The Conver- 
sion of Rome." This work is the most valuable contribution that has yet been 
made to the history of morals. Wedgwood, The Moj-al Ideal, 2d ed., ch. iv, 
" Rome and the Reign of Law " ; ch. v, " The Age of Death." Dill, Roman 



RECOMMENDED READINGS 37 

Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, 1904, later chapters; and Friedlaender, 
Roman Life and Man?iers tender the Early Empire., tr. Magnus, 1908, 3 vols. ; both 
these works contain valuable ethical information, but it is mixed with much other 
matter. Westermarck, Origin atid Development of Moral Ideas., vol. ii, ch, xxxv, 
" Suicide " ; a historical survey. Zeller, The Stoics, Epicureans, and Sceptics, tr. 
Reichel, 1892, chs. x-xii, on Stoic ethics; chs. xix and xx, on Epicurean ethics. 
Davidson, The Stoic Creed, 1907, chs. vii-x, on the ethical system of the Stoics. 

XII. The Ethics of Christianity: an Ideal of Self-Sacrifice. — Paulsen, 
System of Ethics, tr. Thilly, bk. i, ch. ii, " The Christian Conception of Life." 
SiDGWiCK, History of Ethics, ch. iii, §§ 1-4, pp. 107-125, '' Christianity and Medi- 
aeval Ethics." Schmidt, The Prophet of Nazareth. 

XIII. The Moral History of the Age of Asceticism. — Lecky, History of 
European Morals, 3d ed., vol. ii, ch. iv, " From Constantine to Charlemagne," 
pp. 1-247. SiDGWiCK, History of Ethics, ch. iii, § 5. Paulsen, A System of Ethics, 
tr. Thilly, bk. i, ch. iii, portrays the change in the moral consciousness of the 
Grasco-Roman world which prepared the masses for the acceptance of the moral 
ideal of Christianity. Wedgwood, The Moral Ideal, ch. viii, " The Fall of Man." 
From Kingsley, The Hermits, and Wishart, A Short History of Monks and Mon- 
asteries, the student will gain some idea of the difference between the hermits' 
conception of good life and that of the monk. For a more extended study of the 
ethical phase of Christian asceticism, the student should turn to the lives of the 
saints as portrayed in Montalembert, The Monks of the West. 

XIV. The Ethics of Islam. — The Sacred Books of the East, vols, vi and ix, 
" The Qur'an," tr. Palmer. The Koran holds the original ethical system of Islam 
just as the New Testament holds the original ethical system of Christianity. One 
of the best commentaries upon the system is Syed Ameer Ali, The Spirit of 
Islam; or, the Life and Teachings of Mohammed, 2d ed., 1895. Carlyle, Heroes 
and Hero-Worship, lect. ii, "The Hero as Prophet." We have impressed upon 
us here the fact that every great religious revolution in its essential spirit is a 
moral reform. The burden of the Prophet's message, as interpreted by Carlyle, is 
"the infinite nature of duty." Smith, R. B., Mohammed and Mohammedanism, 
1875, shows the modification the moral code has undergone in the course of time 
under the various influences that have shaped the history of the Mohammedan 
world. The World^s Parliament of Religions (the Columbian Exposition of 1893), 
vol. ii, pp. 1046-1052, for a favorable view of Islamic morality. 

XV. The Moral Life of Europe during the Age of Chivalry. — Lecky, His- 
tory of European Morals, 3d ed., vol. ii, ch. iv, pp. 247-274. Paulsen, A System of 
Ethics, tr. Thilly, bk. i, ch. iv, " The Middle Ages and their Conception of Life." 
Garrod, The Religion of all Good Men, 1906, first essay, " Christian, Greek, or 
Goth?" Dewey and Tufts, Ethics, ch. viii, pp. 142-149. Sidgwick, History of 
Ethics, ch. iii, §§ 5-1 1, on the development of scholastic or ecclesiastical ethics. 
Dante, Divine Comedy, tr. Longfellow. 

XVI. Renaissance Morals : a Revival of the Greek Ideal of Self-Realization. 
— Lecky, History of the Rise and the Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in 
Europe, ed. 1890, vol. i, ch. iii, pp. 315-352, for what the author calls the emotional 



38 HISTORY AS ETHICS 

antecedents of persecution, — the medieval conception of hell; ch. iv, pt. i, for 
what he terms the logical antecedents, — the dogmas of hereditary guilt and the 
criminality of wrong beliefs ; vol. ii, ch. iv, pt. ii, for the history of persecution. 
FiSKE, Exctirsions of an Evolutionist^ ch. viii, "The Causes of Persecution." Lea, 
A Histoiy of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, vol. i, ch. v, pp. 233-242, on the 
motives of the persecution. Machiavelli, The Prince. Morley, Machiavelli : 
The Romanes Lecture for iSgy. Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier, 1528, tr. 
Opdycke ; we have here portrayed the qualities and virtues of " the perfect 
courtier without flaw." 

XVII. The Ethical Import of the Protestant Revolution. — Sidgwick, His- 
tory of Ethics, ch. iii, § 12, pp. 1 51-154, shows how the Reformation helped to bring 
in a morality " relying solely on the common reason and the common moral ex- 
perience of mankind." Nash, Genesis of the Social Coitscience, 1897, ch. vii, " The 
Creation of the Reformer's Conscience." Fiske, Excursions of an Evolution- 
ist, chs. ix and x, " The Origins of Protestantism " and " The True Lesson of 
Protestantism." 

XVIII. The Age of Ethical Reconstruction: the New Social and Inter- 
national Conscience. — For a general survey : Paulsen, A System of Ethics, tr. 
Thilly, bk. i, ch. v, " The Modern Conception of Life." Dev^ey and Tufts, 
Ethics, ch. viii, pp. 1 51-169, and chs. xx-xxvi, pp. 427-606. Hobhouse, Morals 
in Evolution, pt. ii, ch. vii, " Modern Ethics." Westermarck, The Origin and 
Development of Moral Ideas, vol. i, ch. xxi, " The Duel" ; ch. xxvii, pp. 704-716, 
on negro slavery ; vol. ii, ch. xliv, " Regard for the Lower Animals." Harris, 
Moral Evolution, 1896. Post, Ethics of Democracy. 

For the ethics of industrialism : Ross, Sin and Society, 1907. Hadley, Stand- 
ards of Public Morality, 1907, ch. ii, " The Ethics of Trade," and ch. iii, " Ethics 
of Corporate Management." The International Journal of Ethics, January, 19 10, 
vol. XX, No. 2, '' Christian Morals and the Competitive System," by Thornstein 
Veblen. Morals in Modern Btisiness, Page Lecture Series, 1908, Yale University. 

For the ethics of science : Schurman, The Ethical Import of Danvijiism, 1887. 
Huxley, Evolution and Ethics — Romanes Lecture for i8gj. BiXBY, The Crisis 
in Morals, 1891, pt. ii, "The Positive Reconstruction of Ethics on the Basis of 
Evolution and Scientific Knowledge." Evans, Evolutional Ethics and Animal 
Psychology, 1898. Williams, A Review of the System of Ethics founded on the 
Theory of Evolution, 1893, pt. ii, chs. v-ix. The International Journal of Ethics, 
July, 1909, " Some Criticisms of the Nietzsche Revival," by Herbert L. Stewart. 
Kropotkin, Mutual Aid : A Factor of Evolution, ed. 1909. FiSKE, Through 
Nature to God, pt. ii, " The Cosmic Roots of Love and Self-Sacrifice." The 
author's thesis is that " the cosmic process exists solely for the sake of moral 
ends." Drummond, The Ascent of Man, 1894. 

For social ethics : under this head we cite only works which disclose the ethi- 
cal spirit that informs the social movement. Peabody, The Approach to the Social 
Question, 1909. Du Bois, The Stcppression of the African Slave Trade to the 
United States of America, 1904. Jane Addams, Democracy and Social Ethics, 1907. 
Lloyd, Man, the Social Creator, 1906. Smyth, New^man, Christian Ethics^ 1892, 



RECOMMENDED READINGS 39 

pt. ii, ch. iv, "The Social Problem and Christian Duties." Scudder, Social Ideals 
in English Letters, pt. ii, traces in literature the awakening of the new social con- 
science. RusKiN, Unto this Last. Carlyle, Past and Present, bk. iii. Spargo, 
The Spiritual Significance ofi Modern Socialism, 1908. KiDD, Social Evolution^ 2d 
ed., 1894. Wells, New Worlds for Old, 1909. Dole, The Ethics of Progress. 

For international ethics : There is already an extensive literature on this sub- 
ject, especially on the peace movement (see publications of the International 
School of Peace, Ginn and Company, Boston ; and titles of works given in each 
issue of The Advocate of Peace, 31 Beacon street, Boston). We name only a 
few works of special import for the present study. Scott, The Hague Peace Con- 
ferences of i8gg and igoy. Hull, The Two Hague Conferences . Spencer, The 
Principles of Ethics, pt. ii, ch. i, "The Confusion of Ethical Thought." The author 
shows how this confusion of thought arises from the conflict between our ordinary 
code of ethics and our war code. Dymond, Essays on Principles of Morality^ 
abridged ed. of 1896, pt. iii, essay iii, ch. x, on the moral consequences of war. 
Walsh, The Moral Damage of War. JORDAN, The Human Harvest. Jane Ad- 
dams, The Newer Ideals of Peace. 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 

AUG 8 ^^ 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 




018 461 777 8 # 



